Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Guardian

The
new Egyptian regime is suspicious of political Islam and only 140
injured Gazans have gone to Egyptian hospitals since 8 July

Friday 1 August 2014

Louisa Loveluck

As the death toll in Gaza
passes 1,400, Egyptian hospitals have treated more than a hundred
casualties of an Israeli military campaign drawing an otherwise muted
response from Egypt, as its political establishment weighs humanitarian responsibilities against domestic politics.

Egypt's
Rafah border crossing – Gaza's only exit route not controlled by Israel
– has opened sporadically since Israel began Operation Protective Edge
on 8 July. According to Egypt's health ministry, 140 people have entered
the country for treatment since then.

The Egyptian authorities
cite security concerns as the reason for repeated closures: Rafah is in
Egypt's restive north Sinai region, where the army is attempting to root
out al-Qaida-affiliated Islamist militants.

Throughout the Gaza
crisis fluorescent ambulances have queued on the Egyptian side of Rafah,
waiting to receive the slow stream of patients chosen for evacuation by
Gaza's health ministry. At least eight hospitals within the Palestinian
enclave have been damaged in the violence, cutting the number of beds
by more than 500.

Inside Egypt's hospitals, doctors say they have
been shocked at the number of child casualties. "It's more than 20% …
the situation is bad," says Dr Sami Anwar, director of the Arish
hospital, 50km from Rafah. "One four year-old girl had a panic attack
when she awoke – she couldn't see anything or find anyone. She'd been
blinded," he says.

Egypt's muted response to the crisis over its
border is a contrast to its efforts in the previous round of violence,
in 2012, when the former president Mohamed Morsi, a staunch Hamas ally, was central to ceasefire negotiations.

This
time, Egypt is part of a coalition of Arab states, including regional
heavyweight Saudi Arabia, that has aligned itself with Israel,
signalling their deep suspicion towards Hamas and political Islam in general.

Egypt
remains a central player in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and
Hamas – it was due to host fresh talks today, but delayed the meetings
after the collapse of a freshly announced 72-hour ceasefire – but
hostility toward Hamas has resulted in a less flexible political
approach to diplomacy, and tight control of aid deliveries through
Rafah.

The crossing authority says 130 tonnes of humanitarian aid
was transferred to Gaza on 25 and 26 of July, using donations from
Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the Arab doctors' union in Egypt, and a Jordanian
donor. An Egyptian military convoy also delivered food and medicine in a
crossing the previous week.

But other convoys have been turned
away – notably those organised by Cairo-based activists. According to
Issandr el-Amrani, International Crisis Group's north Africa
project director, the Egyptian government is unlikely to allow aid
convoys that may be seen to carry a political message of support for
Hamas, or to provide support for the group's call for the border at
Rafah to be thrown open. The latter is a central demand of Hamas.

"[Egypt's]
official line is pretty clear: we support the Palestinian people,
condemn Israel's attacks on civilians and want to facilitate aid, but we
blame Hamas for the current situation," says Mr Amrani. "In practice,
this policy means that the humanitarian aid is stalled, hostage to
Cairo's desire to keep up the pressure on Hamas."

July 29, 2014

Rashid Khalidi

Three days after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
launched the current war in Gaza, he held a press conference in Tel Aviv
during which he said, in Hebrew, according to the Times of Israel,
“I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that
there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish
security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.”

It’s
worth listening carefully when Netanyahu speaks to the Israeli people.
What is going on in Palestine today is not really about Hamas. It is not
about rockets. It is not about “human shields” or terrorism or tunnels.
It is about Israel’s permanent control over Palestinian land and
Palestinian lives.

That is what Netanyahu is really saying, and that is
what he now admits he has “always” talked about. It is about an
unswerving, decades-long Israeli policy of denying Palestine
self-determination, freedom, and sovereignty.

What
Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment
for Gaza’s refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall
of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in
responding to Israel’s siege and its provocations with resistance, armed
or otherwise, after Israel repeatedly reacted to unarmed protest with
crushing force. Despite years of ceasefires and truces, the siege of
Gaza has never been lifted.

As Netanyahu’s own words show,
however, Israel will accept nothing short of the acquiescence of
Palestinians to their own subordination. It will accept only a
Palestinian “state” that is stripped of all the attributes of a real
state: control over security, borders, airspace, maritime limits,
contiguity, and, therefore, sovereignty.

The twenty-three-year charade
of the “peace process” has shown that this is all Israel is offering,
with the full approval of Washington. Whenever the Palestinians have
resisted that pathetic fate (as any nation would), Israel has punished
them for their insolence. This is not new.

Punishing Palestinians
for existing has a long history. It was Israel’s policy before Hamas
and its rudimentary rockets were Israel’s boogeyman of the moment, and
before Israel turned Gaza into an open-air prison, punching bag, and
weapons laboratory.

In 1948, Israel killed thousands of innocents, and
terrorized and displaced hundreds of thousands more, in the name of
creating a Jewish-majority state in a land that was then sixty-five per
cent Arab.

In 1967, it displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
again, occupying territory that it still largely controls, forty-seven
years later.

Since the late nineteen-eighties, when Palestinians under occupation
rose up, mostly by throwing stones and staging general strikes, Israel
has arrested tens of thousands of Palestinians: over seven hundred and
fifty thousand people have spent time in Israeli prisons since 1967, a
number that amounts to forty per cent of the adult male population
today.

They have emerged with accounts of torture, which are
substantiated by human-rights groups like B’tselem. During the second
intifada, which began in 2000, Israel reinvaded the West Bank (it had
never fully left.) The occupation and colonization of Palestinian land
continued unabated throughout the “peace process” of the
nineteen-nineties, and continues to this day.

And yet, in America, the
discussion ignores this crucial, constantly oppressive context, and is
instead too often limited to Israeli “self-defense” and the
Palestinians’ supposed responsibility for their own suffering.

In
the past seven or more years, Israel has besieged, tormented, and
regularly attacked the Gaza Strip. The pretexts change: they elected
Hamas; they refused to be docile; they refused to recognize Israel; they
fired rockets; they built tunnels to circumvent the siege; and on and
on.

But each pretext is a red herring, because the truth of ghettos—what
happens when you imprison 1.8 million people in a hundred and forty
square miles, about a third of the area of New York City, with no
control of borders, almost no access to the sea for fishermen (three out
of the twenty kilometres allowed by the Oslo accords), no real way in
or out, and with drones buzzing overhead night and day—is that,
eventually, the ghetto will fight back.

It was true in Soweto and
Belfast, and it is true in Gaza. We might not like Hamas or some of its
methods, but that is not the same as accepting the proposition that
Palestinians should supinely accept the denial of their right to exist
as a free people in their ancestral homeland.

This is precisely
why the United States’ support of current Israeli policy is folly. Peace
was achieved in Northern Ireland and in South Africa because the United
States and the world realized that they had to put pressure on the
stronger party, holding it accountable and ending its impunity.

Northern
Ireland and South Africa are far from perfect examples, but it is worth
remembering that, to achieve a just outcome, it was necessary for the
United States to deal with groups like the Irish Republican Army and the
African National Congress, which engaged in guerrilla war and even
terrorism. That was the only way to embark on a road toward true peace
and reconciliation. The case of Palestine is not fundamentally
different.

Instead, the United States puts its thumb on the
scales in favor of the stronger party. In this surreal, upside-down
vision of the world, it almost seems as if it is the Israelis who are
occupied by the Palestinians, and not the other way around. In this
skewed universe, the inmates of an open-air prison are besieging a
nuclear-armed power with one of the most sophisticated militaries in the
world.

If we are to move away from this unreality, the U.S. must
either reverse its policies or abandon its claim of being an “honest
broker.”

If the U.S. government wants to fund and arm Israel and parrot
its talking points that fly in the face of reason and international law,
so be it. But it should not claim the moral high ground and intone
solemnly about peace. And it should certainly not insult Palestinians by
saying that it cares about them or their children, who are dying in
Gaza today.

Mada Masr

Egypt’s new maximum wage law is cloaked in confusion and conflicting information

Sunday July 27, 2014

Jano Charbel and Isabel Esterman

During a June 24 speech, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared that
no public employee in Egypt would be paid more than LE42,000 per month,
the same salary the president is entitled to.

A month later, a decree by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb gave more
detail about how a new maximum wage law is to be implemented. Debate has
since raged over the wisdom of capping wages, with opponents and
proponents taking to the media to argue their positions.

The maximum wage ceiling of LE42,000 per month (US$6,000) has been
criticized by high-earners as being too little, while labor groups say
it’s too much.

For nearly seven years, labor activists have been demanding a monthly
minimum wage of LE1,200 and a maximum wage of no more than 15 times that
amount. Since the January 2011 uprising, successive governments have
promised to forge ahead with one that’s 30-40 times the minimum, in an
attempt to address demands for social justice.

The new law finally sets the maximum wage at 35 times the minimum received by public sector employees.

According to worker and activist Nagy Rashad, “The maximum wage is a
good starting point for the realization of social justice. It will be a
positive step forward if the ruling authorities are actually able to
implement it.”

However, he still maintains that the maximum wage is excessive. “The
income differential is very large — this is not what we were hoping
for,” he says.

Sources familiar with the wage structure of public sector companies say
that the LE42,000 ceiling will not affect the vast majority of workers.

Eslam, a National Bank of Egypt employee, who asked that his last name
not be used, explains that entry level workers earn LE2,000-3,000 per
month, rising to LE9,000 after years of experience.

Branch managers can
earn around LE20,000 per month. Only board members and top managers, who
are eligible for huge bonuses and profit sharing schemes, can expect to
earn more than LE42,000 monthly.

In the petroleum sector, only a few top managers and board members are
likely to exceed the maximum wage. Nonetheless, for those at the top end
of the scale, the cap has come as unwelcome news.

In press statements issued this month, spokespersons from the Central
Bank of Egypt and other public sector banks expressed concern that the
new maximum wage law may deter young bankers from working in the public
sector. They would instead seek employment in private sector banks were
there is no ceiling, leaving public institutions vulnerable to a lack of
skills and experienced labor.

According to Angus Blair, head of the Cairo-based Signet Institute,
this may not be a bad move for the country, which is burdened by a huge
public sector wage bill.

“Egypt needs to send more people to the private sector,” he says. “It’s
sending a message to say ‘if you want a decent salary, the government
is not for you.’”

Enforcing a maximum wage law also signals an end to the old days, where
Egyptian ministerial employees might expect to out-earn their
counterparts in Europe. Blair says it also sends a message of “no more
corruption of high salaries.”

Rashad, however, worries that a wage cap could push some of Egypt’s
brightest talents out of the country entirely — a country in which many
competent and skilled laborers already seek job opportunities abroad.

Despite his general stance that the maximum wage is excessive, he does call for exceptions in special cases.

“Someone of the caliber of Dr. Ahmed Zuweil, or his like, should not be
confined to LE42,000 per month, otherwise they'll opt to work elsewhere
in the world,” he said in reference to the internationally renowned
Egyptian chemist/physicist and Nobel prize winner.
LEGISLATIVE LOGISTICS

There are two decrees regulating Egypt’s new maximum wage: Presidential
decree 63/2014, concerning the maximum income for state employees —
issued on July 2, and prime ministerial decree 1265/2014, issued July
19, which sets the executive regulations pertaining to decree 63/2014.

The former sets the maximum wage as a law to be imposed nationwide on
all state ministries, authorities and public sector offices, while the
latter specifies the detailed regulations of this legislation.

The second decree stipulates in Article 1 that the net sum income will
be capped at LE42,000 per month, with no exemptions in the form of
additional bonuses, extra wages, monetary benefits or pay raises. This
is significant, since such bonuses often form the bulk of wage packets
in Egypt.

However, this does not include transportation or accommodation allowances for work, missions, or any other official business.

Article 2 lists the 30 state sectors to whom these regulations apply,
which include public sector banks, the judiciary, police, armed forces,
ministries, state-appointed national councils, public sector utilities
and service companies. The maximum wage also applies to state-employed
advisers, technicians, experts and specialists.

However, the provisions of this law do not apply to diplomats, consular
staff, commercial/trade officials or any other official representing
the Egyptian state abroad.

In an interview with the Sada al-Balad news outlet this month, Prime
Minister Mehleb explained that these categories of civil servants are
exempt from the maximum wage in order “to maintain their high
performance” and “in light of the high living expenses abroad.”

According to Article 3 of the law, committees or working groups are to
be established within each state body to monitor the maximum wage as
well as to earmark all money in excess to specialized bank accounts or
to the Ministry of Finance.

Those who earn more than the maximum wage have to settle any overpayment within 30 days of the end of the year.

Article 4 states that in the case of non-compliance, the government can
deduct additional income from employees, beginning in December in the
year following the year of payment. Any money deducted is to be sent to
the public treasury.

According to Article 5, state entities employing consultants or
specialists must disclose any payment to state auditors within 30 days.
Failure to do so will lead to a disciplinary hearing, and could result
in the consultant being obliged to return any remuneration he or she
received.

The law leaves a number of questions unanswered. For example, it is
unclear how the salary structure will be adjusted in agencies where
employees at various levels of seniority are currently earning more than
LE42,000 a month.

The language in the law also refers to “year of
payment,” an obscure term that leaves room for confusion as to whether
regulations are linked to calendar or fiscal year. It is also unclear
how the new legislation will affect entities, such as petroleum
companies, that are joint ventures between the Egyptian state and
foreign investors.

The law also does not clarify the extent to which the committees tasked
with monitoring enforcement in each state agency will be subject to
independent oversight. Nor is it clear how much money the government
hopes to save by enforcing a maximum wage.

Figures issued by the state’s financial authorities suggest enforcing a
maximum wage will save LE2 billion per year, while other sources have
claimed it will save the public treasury LE13 billion.

While the law is set to enter into effect by the end of this month,
whether or not state authorities will comply is another matter.

The lack of clarity surrounding the maximum wage law has led to
officials waging a battle for public opinion via the pages of local
newspapers.

A number of statements attributed to Hesham Geneina, head of
the Central Auditing Organization, have accused various state agencies —
including the judiciary and police — of refusing to cooperate.
Meanwhile, the organizations named have taken to the media to refute the
claims.

In terms of state officials with the highest pay, media attention has
focused primarily on board members of public-sector banks, ministers,
the judiciary, diplomats and generals in the both the police and armed
forces. However, virtually none of these highly-paid categories have
admitted to earning LE42,000 per month, while all authorities have
claimed that they are in compliance, or are in the process of doing so.
YEARS IN THE MAKING

The idea of setting a maximum wage is not a novel concept introduced by
the new president or his prime minister — it dates back well over 40
years. Article 24 of the 1971 Constitution calls for both minimum and
maximum wages to be set.

An amended form of this provision was included in Article 14 of the Muslim Brotherhood-era 2012 Constitution.

In April 2012, under the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament, a
maximum wage of LE50,000 was reportedly imposed on all ministers and
members of parliament — although these regulations were criticized on
the basis that they were not comprehensively implemented amongst leading
state employees.

Moreover, there were exemptions from the maximum wage for certain categories of advisors, scientists and technical specialists.

In the new 2014 Constitution, Article 27 also stipulates for both a
minimum and maximum wage. Yet, there are concerns over the actual
implementation of both.

In January of this year, a monthly minimum wage of LE1,200 was issued
by law, yet, out of a total workforce of some 27 million, only some 4.9
million public sector employees were granted this new wage. The public
sector employs some seven million people.

“The ruling authorities seek to portray themselves as being populist
leaders of a populist government, much like [ousted President Hosni]
Mubarak sought to portray himself to the populace,” says labor activist
Rashad.

“I expect that heavyweight officials and the ruling regime’s fat cats
are going to find a way to exempt themselves from the maximum wage and
its regulations,” he suspects, saying that since the minimum wage law is
weakly enforced, the maximum would be also.

Israeli spokesmen have their work cut out explaining how they have
killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians,
compared with just three civilians killed in Israel by Hamas rocket and
mortar fire.

But on television and radio and in newspapers, Israeli
government spokesmen such as Mark Regev appear slicker and less
aggressive than their predecessors, who were often visibly indifferent
to how many Palestinians were killed.

There is a reason for this enhancement of the PR skills of Israeli
spokesmen. Going by what they say, the playbook they are using is a
professional, well-researched and confidential study on how to influence
the media and public opinion in America and Europe.

Written by the
expert Republican pollster and political strategist Dr Frank Luntz, the
study was commissioned five years ago by a group called The Israel
Project, with offices in the US and Israel, for use by those “who are on
the front lines of fighting the media war for Israel.”

Every one of the 112 pages in the booklet is marked “not for
distribution or publication” and it is easy to see why.

The Luntz
report, officially entitled “The Israel project’s 2009 Global Language
Dictionary, was leaked almost immediately to Newsweek Online, but its
true importance has seldom been appreciated. It should be required
reading for everybody, especially journalists, interested in any aspect
of Israeli policy because of its “dos and don’ts” for Israeli spokesmen.

These are highly illuminating about the gap between what Israeli
officials and politicians really believe, and what they say, the latter
shaped in minute detail by polling to determine what Americans want to
hear.

Certainly, no journalist interviewing an Israeli spokesman should
do so without reading this preview of many of the themes and phrases
employed by Mr Regev and his colleagues.

The booklet is full of meaty advice about how they should shape their
answers for different audiences. For example, the study says that
“Americans agree that Israel ‘has a right to defensible borders.’

But it
does you no good to define exactly what those borders should be.

Avoid
talking about borders in terms of pre- or post-1967, because it only
serves to remind Americans of Israel’s military history. Particularly on
the left this does you harm.

For instance, support for Israel’s right
to defensible borders drops from a heady 89 per cent to under 60 per
cent when you talk about it in terms of 1967.”

How about the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled in 1948 and in the following years, and who are not allowed to go back to their homes?

Here Dr
Luntz has subtle advice for spokesmen, saying that “the right of return
is a tough issue for Israelis to communicate effectively because much of
Israeli language sounds like the ‘separate but equal’ words of the
1950s segregationists and the 1980s advocates of Apartheid.

So how should spokesmen deal with what the booklet admits is a tough
question? They should call it a “demand”, on the grounds that Americans
don’t like people who make demands. “Then say ‘Palestinians aren’t
content with their own state. Now they’re demanding territory inside
Israel’.”

Other suggestions for an effective Israeli response include
saying that the right of return might become part of a final settlement
“at some point in the future.”

Dr Luntz notes that Americans as a whole are fearful of mass
immigration into the US, so mention of “mass Palestinian immigration”
into Israel will not go down well with them. If nothing else works, say
that the return of Palestinians would “derail the effort to achieve
peace.”

The Luntz report was written in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead
in December 2008 and January 2009, when 1,387 Palestinians and nine
Israelis were killed.

There is a whole chapter on “isolating Iran-backed Hamas as an
obstacle to peace”. Unfortunately, come the current Operation Protective
Edge, which began on 6 July, there was a problem for Israeli
propagandists because Hamas had quarrelled with Iran over the war in
Syria and had no contact with Tehran. Friendly relations have been
resumed only in the past few days – thanks to the Israeli invasion.

Much of Dr Luntz’s advice is about the tone and presentation of the
Israeli case. He says it is absolutely crucial to exude empathy for
Palestinians: “Persuadables [sic] won’t care how much you know until
they know how much you care. Show Empathy for BOTH sides!”

This may
explain why a number of Israeli spokesman are almost lachrymose about
the plight of Palestinians being pounded by Israeli bombs and shells.

In a sentence in bold type, underlined and with capitalisation, Dr
Luntz says that Israeli spokesmen or political leaders must never, ever
justify “the deliberate slaughter of innocent women and children” and
they must aggressively challenge those who accuse Israel of such a
crime.

Israeli spokesmen struggled to be true to this prescription when
16 Palestinians were killed in a UN shelter in Gaza last Thursday.

There is a list of words and phrases to be used and a list of those
to be avoided. Schmaltz is at a premium: “The best way, the only way, to
achieve lasting peace is to achieve mutual respect.”

Above all,
Israel’s desire for peace with the Palestinians should be emphasised at
all times because this what Americans overwhelmingly want to happen. But
any pressure on Israel to actually make peace can be reduced by saying
“one step at a time, one day at a time”, which will be accepted as “a
commonsense approach to the land-for-peace equation.”

Dr Luntz cites as an example of an “effective Israeli sound bite” one
which reads: “I particularly want to reach out to Palestinian mothers
who have lost their children. No parent should have to bury their
child.”

The study admits that the Israeli government does not really want a
two-state solution, but says this should be masked because 78 per cent
of Americans do. Hopes for the economic betterment of Palestinians
should be emphasised.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted with approval for saying
that it is “time for someone to ask Hamas: what exactly are YOU doing to
bring prosperity to your people.”

The hypocrisy of this beggars belief:
it is the seven-year-old Israeli economic siege that has reduced the
Gaza to poverty and misery.

On every occasion, the presentation of events by Israeli spokesmen is
geared to giving Americans and Europeans the impression that Israel
wants peace with the Palestinians and is prepared to compromise to
achieve this, when all the evidence is that it does not.

Though it was
not intended as such, few more revealing studies have been written about
modern Israel in times of war and peace.

Egypt’s army said Sunday it has destroyed 13 more tunnels connecting the
Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip, taking to 1,639 the overall number
it has laid waste to.

Cairo has poured troops into the peninsula to counter a rising
insurgency since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last
year, and its security operation involves the destruction of these
tunnels.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is the main power in
Gaza, reportedly uses the tunnels to smuggle arms, food and money into
the blockaded coastal enclave.

Israel has been waging a military offensive on Gaza since July 8 to
halt rocket fire, and it launched a ground assault on July 17 aimed at
destroying the network of tunnels.

Greste and Fahmy received seven-year terms, while Mohamed was jailed for 10 years, in a case that sparked international outrage.

Eleven defendants tried in absentia, including one Dutch and two British journalists, were given 10-year sentences.

"The
defendants took advantage of the noble profession of journalism... and
turned it from a profession aimed at looking for the truth to a
profession aimed at falsifying the truth," the court said in a statement
explaining its verdict.

"The devil guided them to use journalism and direct it toward activities against this nation," it said.
Since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, the authorities have been incensed by the Qatari network's coverage of their deadly crackdown on his supporters.

They consider Al-Jazeera to be the voice of Qatar, and accuse Doha
of backing Morsi's Brotherhood, as the emirate openly denounces the
repression of the movement's supporters which has killed more than 1,400
people.

Sixteen of a total of 20 defendants in the trial were
Egyptians accused of belonging to the Brotherhood, which the authorities
designated a "terrorist organisation" in December.

Foreign
defendants were alleged to have collaborated with and assisted their
Egyptian co-defendants by providing media material, as well as editing
and broadcasting it.

2014-07-21

But there is little of the traditional Arab solidarity towards Palestinians to be found in the Egyptian media.

Adel Nehaman, a columnist for the Egyptian daily El-Watan, said bluntly: "Sorry Gazans, I cannot support you until you rid yourselves of Hamas."

Azza Sami, a writer for government daily Al-Ahram, went so far as to congratulate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter: "Thank you Netanyahu, and God give us more men like you to destroy Hamas!"

Star presenter of the Al-Faraeen
TV channel, Tawfik Okasha, an ardent supporter of Egypt’s military
regime and known for his firm stance against the ousted Muslim
Brotherhood, attacked the entire Palestinian population live on air.

“Gazans are not men,” he declared. “If they were men they would revolt against Hamas.”
His broadcast was even picked up by Israeli TV to demonstrate Egyptian support for Israel.

WHY THE HATRED FOR HAMAS?
The hostility of these journalists is part and parcel of the movement
that saw democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi removed from
power in a military coup in 2013.

They are now applying the same logic behind the ouster of Morsi, who
was the favoured candidate of the now-censured Muslim Brotherhood, to
the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

In 2013, a significant chunk of the Egyptian media called for the
Muslim Brotherhood’s “liquidation”. That same sentiment is now
applauding Israel’s efforts to disarm Hamas, originally the
Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch.

These Egyptian journalists link Hamas to ongoing violence in the
Sinai Peninsula where in the last 12 months, armed Islamist groups have
attacked Egyptian security forces on an almost daily basis.

Egypt’s current rulers insist that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas
are behind these attacks (even though other groups, such as Ansar Bayt
al-Maqdis and Ajnad Misr regularly claim responsibility.)

Much of Egypt’s media toes the government line. They see the
neutralisation of Hamas as crucial to winning Egypt’s undeclared war in
the Sinai Peninsula.

They don’t hesitate to criticise Hamas and Palestinians generally,
who they hold in contempt for failing to revolt against their Islamist
leaders as Egyptians did in 2013.

‘WIDE OF THE MARK'

Some Egyptian journalists are shocked by this stance. Tarek Saad
Eddin, deputy editor of Al-Musawar magazine, told FRANCE 24’s Arabic
service: “These people are part of a media that takes its orders
straight from the government.

“They have claimed that it was Hamas that was responsible for killing
protesters in Tahrir Square during the 2011 revolution [which saw
unpopular former president Hosni Mubarak removed from power].

“But going so far as to criticise all Gazans is appallingly wide of the mark.”

Media campaigns against an entire nationality are not unprecedented
in Egypt. In the aftermath of Morsi’s ouster in the summer of 2013,
Syrians were targeted.

Tawfik Okasha accused all Syrian refugees in Egypt of being
supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the wider media onslaught
resulted in violent attacks on Syrian refugees on the streets of Cairo.

There are 80,000 Palestinian refugees living in Egypt. Many of them fear an escalation in anti-Palestinian rhetoric.A GENERAL DISTRUST OF PALESTINIANS
Not all Egyptians are hostile to their besieged Arab neighbours.

There have been demonstrations against Israel’s attack on Gaza in
Cairo and Alexandria in recent days, but these only attracted a few
thousand people at the most.

A group of young Egyptian activists, mostly linked to far-left
groups, also organised a solidarity convoy to the Rafah border between
Egypt and Gaza.

The group was turned back by the Egyptian army and sent back to Cairo.

Beyond this very small minority of pro-Palestinian militants,
Egyptians are broadly unsympathetic to the plight of their Gazan
neighbours.

Hosni Mubarak fostered a general distrust of Palestinians for years. It hasn’t gone away.

Egyptian soldiers in north Sinai prevented an aid convoy of
activists from reaching the Rafah border crossing with the embattled
Palestinian Gaza Strip on Saturday, an AFP correspondent said.

An army officer at the Balloza checkpoint, one of many along the desert
highway to Rafah, told an AFP correspondent that the security situation
in the restive peninsula was too unstable to allow the convoy of 11
buses and 500 activists to pass.

There was a brief scuffle between some activists and soldiers but no arrests were made.

Egypt usually keeps the crossing closed, citing a counter-insurgency
operation against militants in north Sinai, but has allowed entry to
Palestinians wounded in the 12-day conflict between Hamas and Israel.

At least 333 Palestinians and three Israelis have died in the unrest,
the third conflict to erupt in and around Gaza in seven years.

The Egyptian military had earlier said it was sending 500 tonnes of food and medical aide to the besieged enclave.

Hamas, militant Islamist rulers of Gaza, have refused to accept a
ceasefire with Israel until it receives guarantees that border crossings
to Gaza -- all but one under Israeli control -- will be opened.

As of Wednesday, three Al Jazeera staff members have been languishing
in prison for 200 days. Their arrest on December 29, and their
conviction on June 23, has sent shockwaves across Egypt and the world.

Since the June 23 verdict, Egypt’s ruling authorities have issued a
number of conflicting statements regarding the trial, its outcome, the
independence of the judiciary, and press freedoms.

Australian reporter Peter Greste was sentenced to seven years in prison
along with the bureau chief of Al Jazeera English Mohamed Fahmy
(Egyptian-Canadian), while producer Baher Mohamed (Egyptian) was
sentenced to 10 years. Another two UK journalists — Sue Turton and
Dominic Kane — and Dutch journalist Rena Netjes were all sentenced in
absentia to 10 years imprisonment.

On Wednesday, Australian media outlets citing the Egyptian Ambassador
in Canberra reported that a presidential pardon for Greste and his
colleagues was “unlikely.”

When asked if he thought the verdict was right or wrong, Ambassador
Hassan al-Laithy told ABC Radio Canberra: “The word right or wrong is
not applicable, I would have loved to see Peter Greste reunited with his
family.”

Laithy went on to say: “It's not about my wish, or our wish. It’s about when the rule of law is the case.”

When asked if he thought such verdicts against journalists were moving
Egypt forward or backward, Laithy added: “I hope it is only a phase that
will be over in the near future. I can see encouragement in this
direction.”

The day after the verdict was issued, President Sisi announced on June
24 that he would not intervene in the affairs of the judiciary, which he
described as “independent” and “exalted.”

Sisi would later tone down his statements. On July 7, in a meeting with
leading Egyptian editors and writers, he commented that the court
verdict: “Had very negative effects” and had hurt Egypt’s image abroad.

The military-chief-turned-president added: “I wished they were deported
right after they were arrested instead of being put on trial.”

Sisi’s preference for the deportation of journalists has also been
criticized, especially given that two out of three jailed defendants are
Egyptian nationals.

More recently on July 14, Egypt’s official State Information Service website issued a press statement
from the Ministry of Justice in which it defended the country’s
judicial system, while condemning the Al Jazeera journalists as
“criminals.”

“The Ministry of Justice has received numerous complaints and inquiries
from nongovernmental organizations and human rights activists all
around the world,” the statement maintained, at the same time as
defending the verdict against three journalists guilty of “aiding
terrorists and endangering national security.”

Citing the Office of the Prosecutor General, the statement claims the
three Al Jazeera staffers are also guilty of: “joining an illegal group —
the purpose of which was to disrupt the Constitution and laws —
preventing the state's institutions and public authorities from
exercising their duties, and infringing upon the personal freedoms of
citizens, in order to endanger public order and compromise the integrity
and security of society, using terrorism as a method to carry out the
purposes called for by the aforementioned illegal group.”

The statement further claimed that, “all defenses were verbally
examined during the hearings” and “the court was bound to render its
verdict based only on the evidence produced during the trial.”

Amongst this so-called evidence examined in court were recorded
interviews conducted in other countries (not relating to Egypt), and a
music video by Australian pop star Gotye.

The SIS statement also mentioned that the Egyptian Constitution of 2014
upholds freedom of expression, opinion and publication (stipulated in
Article 65), but added that, “rights and freedoms cannot be extended to
all individuals.”

According to a statement published on July 16 on Mohamed Fahmy’s blog
— which is updated by his family: “200 days of injustice, solitary
confinement and collective punishment has left me and my colleagues,
Peter Greste and Baher Mohammed, more determined than ever to fight this
war against freedom of speech.”

Fahmy points out that prosecutors explained to him from the beginning
of the trial: “You are here because of Qatar.” Al Jazeera is based in
the Qatari capital Doha, where the ruling monarchy is widely perceived
as supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

The statement issued by the Ministry of Justice adds that Al Jazeera’s
staff members “were tried without undue delay.” However, a fourth Al
Jazeera staffer, reporter Abdallah al-Shamy, was jailed for more than 10
months without charge or trial. After being locked-up in the Scorpion
Maximum Security Prison, where he embarked on a hunger strike lasting
140 days, Shamy was eventually released on June 17.

On the occasion of his 200th day behind bars, Fahmy commented: “We all
respected the Egyptian judicial system and played along in what has
become a theatrical trial broadcast all over the world.
“As the authorities paraded me and my colleagues out of the cage, it
became evident to the journalistic community that this trial was another
sign of the crackdown on any dissent in Egypt and a subliminal message
to local journalists who do not conform to the government’s line.”

Amnesty International issued a statement describing the aforementioned
verdict as “a dark day for media freedom in the country.” While
Amnesty’s Philip Luther announced, “This is a devastating verdict for
the men and their families, and a dark day for media freedom in Egypt,
when journalists are being locked up and branded criminals or
‘terrorists’ simply for doing their job.”

“The only reason these three men are in jail is because the Egyptian
authorities don’t like what they have to say. They are prisoners of
conscience and must be immediately and unconditionally released,” Luther
added.

After clearing the US handover of Apache Helicopters to Egypt on June
22, the following day Secretary of State John Kerry described the
verdicts as: “chilling and draconian.”

The UK’s (former) Foreign Secretary William Hague announced on June 23
that he was “appalled by the guilty verdicts handed down against
Egyptian and international journalists.”

Hague added: “I am particularly concerned by unacceptable procedural
shortcomings during the trial process, including that key prosecution
evidence was not made available to the defense team. Freedom of the
press is a cornerstone of a stable and prosperous society.”

According to Amnesty’s Luther: “Instead of locking up journalists and
others perceived to pose a threat, the authorities should focus their
efforts on conducting credible investigations into abuses by the
security forces.”

While Egypt’s judiciary claims to be independent, its track record
points in another direction. Over the course of the past year, judges
have issued lengthy prison sentences against opposition forces and
journalists, while simultaneously acquitting police forces of any
wrongdoing, despite the hundreds killed. This will continue to raise
questions regarding the extent of the politicization of Egypt’s judicial
system.

RSF ranked Egypt as the third deadliest country (after Syria and Iraq)
for journalists in 2013, while in terms of press freedoms it ranked
158th out of 179 in 2013, and 159th out of 180 countries in 2014.

The Al Jazeera network insists that its staff members in Egypt are
innocent of the “false accusations” levelled against them. It calls for
vigils and rallies for the release of these three staffers, along with
online campaigns using the hashtag: #FreeAJStaff.

Anadolu Agency

Following
Egypt's 2011 popular uprising, which ended Mubarak's 30-year rule, the
party was given a new name by a group of politicians who had hoped to
reanimate it.

14 July 2014

An Egyptian court on Monday overturned an earlier court ruling
barring former members of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's National
Democratic Party (NDP) from contesting presidential or parliamentary
polls, judicial sources have said.

According to the sources,
Cairo's court of urgent matters overturned a May ruling banning former
members of the NDP – dissolved in the wake of Mubarak's 2011 ouster –
from running in either presidential elections (which were already held
on May 26-27) or parliamentary polls slated for later this year.

The NDP, which had been headed by Mubarak, was officially dissolved by court order on April 16, 2011.

Following
Egypt's 2011 popular uprising, which ended Mubarak's 30-year rule, the
party was given a new name by a group of politicians who had hoped to
reanimate it.

The 2011 court ruling, however, ended the party's existence on Egypt's political stage.

In
its May ruling, the court said the NDP had "played a leading role
appointing corrupt governments and approving unconstitutional laws"
since its establishment in 1978.

Egypt now plans to hold
parliamentary polls sometime before the end of the year in line with a
transitional roadmap imposed by the army following last year's ouster of
elected president Mohamed Morsi.

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi,
widely seen as the architect of Morsi's ouster and subsequent
imprisonment one year ago, was declared the winner of Egypt's
presidential election in May – the second phase of the army-imposed
roadmap.

Solidarity
march in downtown Cairo is also critical of Egypt's rulers - who
protesters say haven't done enough to help besieged Gazans

Sunday 13 Jul 2014

Mai Shaheen

A few hundred Egyptians took part in a solidarity rally with the
Palestinian Gaza Strip in downtown Cairo on Sunday, chanting against
Israeli attacks that have killed over 165 Gazans, mostly civilians,
during the past week.

The protest call was launched by a solidarity movement, the Popular
Campaign to Support the Palestinian Intifada, which is putting together a
convoy of medical supplies needed in Gaza.

Protesters gathered at Egypt's Journalists Syndicate headquarters in
downtown Cairo to have Iftar, the meal that breaks Muslims' fast in the
holy month of Ramadan, and then held the demonstration, marching in a
rally throughout the area.

Ahmad Saqr, 23, an artist, said Palestinians are facing all kinds of
human rights violations. "I support Hamas since it represents resistance
against Israel," he told Ahram Online. Saqr is worried the convoy won't
be allowed in Gaza.

Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades fired hundreds of rockets into Israel after
the launch of Israel's Operation Protective Edge on Tuesday.

Some chants were critical of Egyptian authorities, accusing them of
colluding with Israel against Palestinians by closing the Rafah crossing
between Egypt and Gaza.

The crossing was opened intermittently to allow injured Palestinians to seek medical care in Egyptian hospitals.

"The crossing must be opened permanently," said Nashwa Ahmed, 45, who will ride with the convoy to Gaza this week.

Mada Masr

Since July 3, 2013, Egypt’s human rights record has been widely
criticized both domestically and internationally. Over the course of the
past year, a host of laws and decrees have been issued to restrict
rights and limit freedoms.

This drastic decline in rights and freedoms took place during the
11-month administration of former interim President Adly Mansour. The
ex-chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court is responsible for
issuing dozens of presidential decrees, while hundreds of ministerial
decrees were also issued during his 330 days in office.

This article will focus on the most prominent pieces of legislation
affecting basic rights and liberties issued since last year,
particularly Mansour’s decrees.

“I
am not alone in my perception that interim President Adly Mansour is
the worst president Egypt has had since July 1952. His rule has been
characterized by a squandering of justice, and a sharp increase in
violations, even though he is a judge.”

Estimates suggest that somewhere from several hundred to potentially
more than 1,400 opposition elements have been killed on the streets by
security forces, while according to the Egyptian Center for Economic and
Social Rights, an unprecedented number of civilians have also been
arrested or prosecuted this year, amounting to well over 41,163.

Moreover, 80 civilians are reported to have died in the custody of security forces this year.

“I am not alone in my perception that interim President Adly Mansour is
the worst president Egypt has had since July 1952,” says human rights
lawyer Gamal Eid. “His rule has been characterized by a squandering of
justice, and a sharp increase in violations, even though he is a judge.”

“Many decrees issued by Adly Mansour and the Ministry of Justice have
further granted the military institution wide ranging rights, additional
lands, increased clout and sovereign powers,” says Eid, and “due
process rights guaranteed in the Constitution are almost entirely
ignored” by prosecutors and judges.

The lawyer explains that ruling authorities and their security forces
are immune from trial and their budgets remain concealed, while there is
practically no oversight or accountability for the systematic
violations of rights.

Of the few trials of police personnel for abuses, nearly all were eventually acquitted.
PROTEST LAW

On November 24, 2013, Mansour issued Presidential Decree 107/2013: Law
Regulating Right of Assembly, Processions and Peaceful Protest. Commonly
known as the Protest Law, this is likely the most controversial piece
of legislation passed since July 3 last year.

This law has been used to stifle any unauthorized protest or assembly
involving more than 10 people, thus highly restricting the mobility of
protest marches.

Moreover, it grants police sweeping powers to forcefully disperse
protesters at will using teargas, water cannons, batons or rubber
pellets, even if authorization was granted for the protest action.
Authorization is also granted to arrest anyone involved.

Furthermore, this law imposes a time restriction of 24 hours on any
such assembly, thus prohibiting all forms of occupations, sit-ins or
sleep-ins. In addition, the law bans any form of protest which would
obstruct production, and thus can be used to crush labor strikes as
well.

Those found to violate this law may be issued fines of up to LE300,000
and/or prison sentences ranging from two years to more than seven years.

Amnesty International claims
that the law represents “a serious setback that poses a grave threat to
freedom of assembly and gives security forces a free rein to use
excessive force, including lethal force, against demonstrators.”

In televised interviews conducted in May, Sisi announced that he would uphold the Protest Law as is when he became president.

This law has been used to arrest and prosecute not only Islamist
protesters, but also secular opposition activists, striking workers and
participants in popular protests.

On June 11, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 25 secular protesters to 15 years in prison for violating this law.

According to Eid, the Protest Law goes hand-in-hand with new judicial norms that disregard defendants’ rights to due process.

On December 25, the Muslim Brotherhood was dealt an unprecedented
blow. Under the leadership of then-Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, the
Cabinet classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
This decree is not registered in the Official Gazette, however.

In doing so, Beblawi’s government brought into effect a wide array of
measures to further crackdown on Egypt’s largest political opposition
force — the Muslim Brotherhood, its political arm the Freedom and
Justice Party and its associated businesses and interests.

On September 25, Mansour issued Presidential Decree 83/2013 allowing
for the indefinite detention of prisoners if they have been sentenced to
death or life imprisonment. In accordance with this decree, provisional
detentions of such defendants can now be renewed by appeals courts
every 45 days at will, with the previous time limit of two years
detention being scrapped from the law.
LAWS TAILORED FOR SISI?

On January 27, Mansour issued Presidential Decree 38/2014, which
promoted Sisi from the rank of general to that of field marshal — the
highest military rank in Egypt, reserved for generals who have commanded
troops in battle — even though Sisi has no real combat experience.

Sisi was promoted to the rank of field marshal in the beginning of
February, and announced his presidential bid the following month. On
March 26, Sisi — who was serving as commander-in-chief of the Armed
Forces, minister of defense, minister of military production, chief of
the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and deputy prime minister —
officially declared that he was stepping down from these posts and would
be running for the highest office in the country.

On the same day, the Cabinet issued Decree 513/2014 accepting Sisi’s
resignation from these posts and opening the way to his presidential
nomination.

On March 29, the Presidential Election Commission issued Decree 9/2014,
Regulating Electoral Campaign Finances. This state-appointed commission
raised the ceiling on campaign expenditures from LE12 million — the
limit during the 2012 presidential election — to LE20 million.

Furthermore, with less than one month in office, the interim president moved to raise
the basic presidential salary from LE2,000 to LE21,000, in addition to
another LE21,000 in the form of bonuses, thus amending a 1987 law which
had fixed the presidential salary at LE2,000 per month.

After taking office, Sisi pledged to give up half of his income as a
donation to Egypt, but this would still render him the highest paid
president in the country’s history.

Sisi has pushed government officials to donate their salaries in a
similar fashion, and to keep the maximum wage for state administrators
and public servants capped at LE42,000, or 35 times the minimum wage.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

For nearly seven years now, Egypt’s working class has been demanding a
minimum wage of LE1,200 per month, while others have raised their demand
for a monthly wage of LE1,500.

Moreover, since 2011, labor activists, labor NGOs, professional
syndicates and independent trade unions have been calling for a maximum
wage of no more than 15 times the minimum, or between LE18,000 and
LE22,500.

But according to Eid, “Neither the minimum nor maximum wages will properly be implemented or enforced.”

Indeed, while on January 15 Beblawi issued Cabinet Decree 22/2014,
Augmenting Wages of Civil Servants, this minimum wage of LE1,200 was
made available to just under 4.9 million employees from an aggregate of
some 7 million workers in the public sector, out of a total national
workforce of some 27 million.

This failure to provide the minimum wage even among public sector
workers led to a renewed wave of labor strikes and industrial actions
from February to April, 2014.

Since the 2011 uprising, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade
Unions has issued numerous statements denouncing the “authorities’
failures” for hastily issuing laws that seek to outlaw protests and
strikes, while simultaneously dragging their feet in terms of issuing
new trade union legislation to replace the restrictive Law 35/1976, or a
new labor law to replace Law 12/2003, so as to protect the rights and
organizational freedoms of workers and their labor organizations.

Another one of Mansour’s last decrees issued on May 21, Presidential
Decree 39/2014, was to extend the term of the state-controlled Egyptian
Trade Union Federation (ETUF) by another year. ETUF elections have been
postponed several times since October-November 2011, when they were due
to be held. This has further facilitated the government’s appointment of
the ETUF’s leaders without any form of elections. The ETUF is the
country’s oldest and largest trade union federation, claiming a
membership of over 4 million nationwide.

CONSTITUTION: RIGHTS & VIOLATIONS

Drafted by interim authorities after July 3, 2013, the Constitution
passed in January 2014 includes a host of new provisions protecting
personal freedoms and basic rights.

However, it also upholds several of the worrisome articles carried over
from the Muslim Brotherhood-drafted Constitution of 2012, with
allowances for military tribunals of civilians (Article 204), secrecy of
the Armed Forces’ budget (Article 203), forced labor (Article 12) and
child labor (Article 80).

“This Constitution includes many progressive articles, which are
typically ignored by authorities,” claims Eid, while its repressive
articles are swiftly upheld.

In Cairo’s Matareya police station, three detainees are reported to
have died in custody during the month of May alone. Nobody has been
brought to trial for these deaths.

In June, judges acquitted four policemen who tear gassed 37 detainees in a prisoner truck, resulting in their deaths.

Eid explained that while Article 40 of the Constitution protects
individuals from unwarranted searches and seizures, this has not keep
security forces from violating it.

“Despite the law and the Constitution, police still confiscated 1,000 copies of our human rights publication,” he points out.
ENVIRONMENTAL DECREES

Following much debate and controversy, on April 2 Prime Minister
Ibrahim Mehleb’s government agreed to import coal for use in Egyptian
industries, and specifically to fuel the cement industry, in light of
the country’s natural gas shortages.

However, as environmental activist Ahmed al-Droubi, coordinator of the
Egyptians Against Coal group, points out, this decision has the weight
of a Cabinet decree but was never actually registered in the Official
Gazette.

“Therefore, we have no details regarding the government’s plans for the
importation, use or regulation of coal in industries. We don’t know if
the government will approve the use of coal in industries other than
cement,” says Droubi.

According to Droubi, the use of coal in cement or other industries will
have a negative, and likely an irreversible impact not only on the
environment, but also on public health, residential rights, labor
rights, tourism and the economy as a whole.

“Coal has been imported and used in the cement industry prior to the
Cabinet’s vote,” Droubi explains. Indeed, coal imports first began
arriving in the Alexandrian Port of Dehkeila in October 2013.

“Coal will be continue to be imported and used regardless of the
whether there is a Cabinet decree regulating it or not,” the activist
argues.

“Over the past year, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs has embarked
on some worthwhile projects, such as solid waste management,” he
concedes. But as for worthwhile environmental decrees, he claims he has
not encountered any since July 3, 2013.
PROGRESS

One of the most eagerly anticipated and welcomed decrees issued by
Mansour on June 5, just three days before the end of his interim
presidency, addressed the nationwide problem of sexual harassment and
assaults against women.

Presidential Decree 50/2014, Amending Provisions of the Penal Code,
imposes fines ranging between LE3,000 to LE5,000 for those caught in the
act of sexual harassment or assault, whether by gestures, words or
actions. Furthermore, such assailants are to be sentenced to not less
than six months in prison.

Additional penalties of imprisonment for one year, and fines ranging
from LE5,000 to LE10,000 will be imposed on repeat offenders, or for
those found guilty of stalking.

However, this decree did not prevent mob sexual assaults on women in
Tahrir Square during Sisi’s inauguration on June 8, when several women
were reportedly assaulted or raped in or near the square.
In response, the Ministry of Interior claims that it arrested seven men
involved in these attacks, and submitted them to prosecution. Other
sexual assailants have since been arrested in other incidents, and also
handed over for prosecution.

However, he explains, “There have been some worthy amendments made to
some laws. Yet in terms of new legislation we’ve been watching the
government and waiting for any progressive laws to be issued, we haven’t
come across such laws this year.”

On June 16, Sisi established via Presidential Decree 187/2014 the Supreme Legislative Reform Committee
composed of ministers, lawyers, professors of law and religious
scholars. This legislative committee is presided over by Mehleb, and is
to serve as the centralized body by which laws and decrees are issued
until a new parliament is voted in.

Israel's defence minister has confirmed that military plans to 'uproot Hamas' are about dominating Gaza's gas reserves

Wednesday July 9, 2014

Nafeez Ahmed

Yesterday, Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon
announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a
protracted assault on Hamas. The operation "won't end in just a few
days," he said, adding that "we are preparing to expand the operation by
all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas."
This morning, he said:

"We
continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are
destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems,
Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and
killing terrorists of various ranks of command… The campaign against
Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization
will pay will be very heavy."

But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya'alon's concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza
coast, valued at $4 billion. Ya'alon dismissed the notion that "Gaza
gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian
state" as "misguided." The problem, he said, is that:

"Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel
would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian
public. Rather, based on Israel's past experience, the proceeds will
likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel…

A gas
transaction with the Palestinian Authority [PA] will, by definition,
involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will
sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas
installations, Israel – or all three… It is clear that without an
overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling
work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic
movement."

Mark Turner, founder of the Research Journalism Initiative, reported
that the siege of Gaza and ensuing military pressure was designed to
"eliminate" Hamas as "a viable political entity in Gaza" to generate a
"political climate" conducive to a gas deal. This involved
rehabilitating the defeated Fatah as the dominant political player in
the West Bank, and "leveraging political tensions between the two
parties, arming forces loyal to Abbas and the selective resumption of
financial aid."

Ya'alon's comments in 2007 illustrate that the
Israeli cabinet is not just concerned about Hamas – but concerned that
if Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic
transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.

Meanwhile, Israel has made successive major discoveries
in recent years - such as the Leviathan field estimated to hold 18
trillion cubic feet of natural gas – which could transform the country
from energy importer into aspiring energy exporter with ambitions to
supply Europe, Jordan and Egypt.

A potential obstacle is that much of
the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the
Levant Basin Province lies in territorial waters where borders are
hotly disputed between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Cyprus.

Amidst
this regional jockeying for gas, though, Israel faces its own
little-understood energy challenges. It could, for instance, take until
2020 for much of these domestic resources to be properly mobilised.

But
this is the tip of the iceberg. A 2012 letter by two Israeli government
chief scientists – which the Israeli government chose not to disclose –
warned the government that Israel still had insufficient gas resources
to sustain exports despite all the stupendous discoveries. The letter,
according to Ha'aretz,
stated that Israel's domestic resources were 50% less than needed to
support meaningful exports, and could be depleted in decades:

"We
believe Israel should increase its [domestic] use of natural gas by
2020 and should not export gas. The Natural Gas Authority's estimates
are lacking. There's a gap of 100 to 150 billion cubic meters between
the demand projections that were presented to the committee and the most
recent projections. The gas reserves are likely to last even less than
40 years!"

As Dr Gary Luft - an advisor to the US Energy Security Council - wrote in the Journal of Energy Security,
"with the depletion of Israel's domestic gas supplies accelerating, and
without an imminent rise in Egyptian gas imports, Israel could face a
power crisis in the next few years… If Israel is to continue to pursue
its natural gas plans it must diversify its supply sources."

Israel's new domestic discoveries do not, as yet, offer an immediate solution as electricity prices
reach record levels, heightening the imperative to diversify supply.
This appears to be behind Prime Minister Netanyahu's announcement in
February 2011 that it was now time to seal the Gaza gas deal.

But even
after a new round of negotiations was kick-started between the Fatah-led
Palestinian Authority and Israel in September 2012, Hamas was excluded
from these talks, and thus rejected the legitimacy of any deal.

Earlier this year, Hamas condemned
a PA deal to purchase $1.2 billion worth of gas from Israel Leviathan
field over a 20 year period once the field starts producing.
Simultaneously, the PA has held several meetings with the British Gas Group
to develop the Gaza gas field, albeit with a view to exclude Hamas –
and thus Gazans – from access to the proceeds. That plan had been the
brainchild of Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

But the PA was also courting Russia's Gazprom
to develop the Gaza marine gas field, and talks have been going on
between Russia, Israel and Cyprus, though so far it is unclear what the
outcome of these have been. Also missing was any clarification on how
the PA would exert control over Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.

According to Anais Antreasyan in the University of California's Journal of Palestine Studies,
the most respected English language journal devoted to the Arab-Israeli
conflict, Israel's stranglehold over Gaza has been designed to make
"Palestinian access to the Marine-1 and Marine-2 gas wells impossible."

Israel's long-term goal "besides preventing the Palestinians from
exploiting their own resources, is to integrate the gas fields off Gaza
into the adjacent Israeli offshore installations." This is part of a
wider strategy of:

"…. separating the Palestinians
from their land and natural resources in order to exploit them, and, as a
consequence, blocking Palestinian economic development. Despite all
formal agreements to the contrary, Israel continues to manage all the
natural resources nominally under the jurisdiction of the PA, from land
and water to maritime and hydrocarbon resources."

For
the Israeli government, Hamas continues to be the main obstacle to the
finalisation of the gas deal. In the incumbent defence minister's words:
"Israel's experience during the Oslo years indicates Palestinian gas
profits would likely end up funding terrorism against Israel. The threat
is not limited to Hamas… It is impossible to prevent at least some of
the gas proceeds from reaching Palestinian terror groups."

In the wake of Operation Cast Lead, the Jerusalem-based Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
(Pcati) found that the IDF had adopted a more aggressive combat
doctrine based on two principles – "zero casualties" for IDF soldiers at
the cost of deploying increasingly indiscriminate firepower in densely
populated areas, and the "dahiya doctrine" promoting targeting of
civilian infrastructure to create widespread suffering amongst the
population with a view to foment opposition to Israel's opponents.

This
was confirmed in practice by the UN fact-finding mission in Gaza which
concluded that the IDF had pursued a "deliberate policy of
disproportionate force," aimed at the "supporting infrastructure" of the
enemy - "this appears to have meant the civilian population," said the UN report.

The
Israel-Palestine conflict is clearly not all about resources. But in an
age of expensive energy, competition to dominate regional fossil fuels are increasingly influencing the critical decisions that can inflame war.

Tuesday marked the bloodiest day of Israel’s most recent attacks on the
besieged Gaza Strip. The death toll in Gaza reached at least 17 after
the latest air strike killed six.

Meanwhile, sirens could be heard across Jerusalem after the Israeli
Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepted a rocket fired from the
Gaza Strip over Tel Aviv, the Anadolu Agency reported.

A statement released by the Jerusalem Municipality urged residents to
“remain in protected areas for 10 minutes [after the sirens go off]. Sit
on the floor under the window line against the most interior wall
available, opposite any windows.”

Hamas had announced that rockets were launched targeting Israeli cities
in response to the air strikes on Gaza. However, Israeli authorities
reported that no casualties occurred as a result of the attacks on
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the northern city of Haifa.

The only passageway in or out of Gaza remains closed, at Cairo’s
behest, despite the ongoing aerial assaults ­— which are reported to
have targeted more than 50 sites across this coastal enclave.

Nonetheless, the spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry decried
Israel’s “collective punishment policy” and called on the Zionist state
to exercise “self-restraint.”

The Rafah border crossing has predominantly been closed since July 3,
2013 — when Morsi was deposed by the Egyptian military — with rare
exceptions made for Palestinian pilgrims, students, and
medical/humanitarian cases.

Despite the ongoing violence, security forces have not allowed
Palestinians to seek shelter or medical assistance in Egypt. Alternative
routes are also limited, since Egypt’s authorities demolished nearly
all the smuggling tunnels between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza
Strip in recent months.

On Tuesday, a host of Palestinian news websites and media outlets,
along with some Egyptian solidarity groups, called on the authorities in
Cairo to allow for the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing in light
of the present crisis.

According to Abdel Aty’s statement,
posted on the State Information Service website, “Egypt totally rejects
and condemns all violence that results in the killing of civilians from
both sides.”

For nearly three weeks, Palestinian armed groups — particularly the
Islamic resistance group Hamas — have been engaged in rocket and mortar
attacks targeting southern Israel. These primitive rocket attacks have
not resulted in any Israeli fatalities, although property damage has
been reported.

In response, Israeli armed forces launched “Operation Protective Edge”
against Palestinian targets in Gaza. A host of civilian casualties are
being reported.

A new wave of violence erupted between the Zionist state and the
Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since three
Jewish teenage settlers disappeared on June 12.

Their dead bodies were
discovered in the West Bank on June 30. Israeli authorities have blamed
Hamas for the kidnapping and deaths of the three teens.

In their rescue attempts, Israeli forces searched and raided hundreds
of Palestinian properties across the West Bank. Over 300 Palestinians
are reported to have been arrested in the course of these operations.

In a revenge attack a Palestinian teenager was kidnapped from the West
Bank and reportedly burnt alive. His remains were found on July 2.